1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to virtual reality and, in particular, to user interaction with a virtual environment. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and system for increasing a level of eye-hand coordination when a user interacts with a virtual environment.
2. Background
Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that may be used to simulate a real environment or an imaginary environment in the form of a virtual environment. A virtual environment is a computer-simulated environment that can simulate physical presence in a real environment or an imaginary environment. Typically, a virtual environment is visually presented to a user as a two-dimensional environment or a three-dimensional environment. In some cases, sensory information, such as sound, may be presented to the user in addition to the visual presentation of the virtual environment.
Different types of virtual reality systems may provide different levels of immersion for a user. As used herein, the level of “immersion” provided by a virtual reality system is the extent to which a user feels present in the virtual environment created by the virtual reality system. A user may be fully immersed in a virtual environment when the user experiences both perceptive immersion and cognitive immersion.
A user may experience perceptive immersion when the user has a sense of being physically present in the virtual environment. For example, the user may feel that his or her hands are present in the virtual environment. A user may experience cognitive immersion when the user has a sense that what is happening in the virtual environment is actually happening. In other words, the mind of the user may be immersed in the virtual environment.
Further, when a user is cognitively immersed in a virtual environment, the actions of the user may have effects on the virtual environment, and events in the virtual environment may affect the senses of the user. When the user is cognitively immersed in the virtual environment, the user may accept the effects on the virtual environment and the effects on the senses of the user as actually occurring.
Some currently available virtual reality systems may be unable to provide a desired level of immersion. For example, some currently available virtual reality systems may be unable to simulate human mobility within a virtual environment with a desired level of accuracy. In particular, these virtual reality systems may be unable to simulate rotation of human skeletal components about hinged joints with a desired level of accuracy without increasing the size and/or weight of the virtual reality systems more than desired.
For example, a gyroscope may be capable of measuring the rotation of a human skeletal component about a hinged joint. However, the configuration for the gyroscope needed to measure this type of rotation may be larger and/or heavier than desired. Further, this configuration for the gyroscope may exert undesired forces on the human body part to which the gyroscope is attached. For example, a gyroscope attached to a hand may exert undesired forces on the hand when measuring movement of the hand. These undesired forces may cause the hand to move in an undesired manner.
Some currently available virtual reality systems may use displacement estimation techniques to track the movement of, for example, the fingers of a user. However, these displacement estimation techniques may track the movement of the fingers of the user with a less than desired accuracy.
In this manner, some of the currently available virtual reality systems may be unable to simulate the movement of the human body and/or parts of the human body with a desired level of accuracy. Consequently, these currently available virtual reality systems may be unable to provide a user with the level of eye-hand coordination needed to allow the user to feel a desired level of immersion within the virtual environment.
Without the level of eye-hand coordination needed for providing the desired level of immersion within the virtual environment, a user may be unable to perform certain tasks within the virtual environment as quickly and/or efficiently as desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system and method that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.